Actor-Preneur

While on the road between Europe, Australia, South Africa, Asia,New Zealand and the United Kingdom, the TVI Actors Studio staff have essentials which every actor should have easily available so they do not miss that film screen test.

On my list:

Always have on hand Euros, British pounds, US dollars, Australian dollars, South African Rand, etc

An un-locked mobile phone so you can swap the sim cards with local pay as you go cards. In order for you to do this if you are American, you must go with AT&T or T-Mobile as they have the same GSM technology as the rest of the world. Verizon and Sprint use a technology called CSMA that will not work internationally.

I also suggest a Blackberry device with international data plan. Although I have the AT&T International service, T-Mobile international service is actually much less expensive at $20 a month.

Of course a current passport with available pages. (South Africa requires 4 pages free)

And if you have an American iphone please see the details on the AT&T web site. They clearly note, “International roaming and data usage is not covered under your existing data plan.” Be Careful and put your iphone on airplane mode when leaving the US!

From today’s India Post, Bollywood enters Britain’s filmdom market by opening the first acting school to prepare young Shah Rukh Khans and Aishwarya Rais from the Asian community has made a queue for obtaining the application forms.

The school’s first ever overseas branch has already started functioning in Ealing and is being run in collaboration with the Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College.
Around 30 selected students will join the three-month course beginning September. They will be trained in Hindi film dance, martial arts and diction, and candidates can choose to study in English or Hindi.

They will also learn yoga to help them better control their bodies and minds.

I was heading to London after a few days in Paris for meetings in the business class car of Eurostar’s Chunnel service. The day long Actorpreneur workshop in London, I expanded the usual presentation with amazing video interviews with prominent Broadway and Los Angeles professionals.

The all day Intensive included a catered lunch and informative video interviews with Roy Steinberg, TV Producer/Director, Angela Terry, Los Angeles Casting director, Joel Kleinman, Los Angeles Talent Agent, Corey Pepper, an established working actor, Donald Norris, Los Angeles professional headshot photographer, Pat McCorkle, Broadway/Film Casting Director, Bobby Daye, an established Broadway star and Rob Decina, Casting director, CBS Guiding Light.

Several weeks ago I had the honor of speaking and presenting the “actorpreneur” workshop to the students of distinguished actor Arved Birnbaum at his acting school, Zentrum für Schauspiel und Film in Cologne (Köln), Germany. Zentrum für Schauspiel und Film is one of the most respected and prominent acting programs in Europe.

Pictured to the left is Juilliard graduate and instructor at Zentrum für Schauspiel und Film Carolyn James who was instrumental in organizing the event.

Heading to TVI NY for my first NY trip of the year.

Arrived in San Francisco yesterday for the annual MacWorld expo. I will be posting in the next few days on cool new technologies that actorpreneurs can use to enhance their acting careers.

From TVI’s Brisbane event, back to Sydney, then a few days in Los Angeles!

I caught United’s 8:40am LAX flight Thursday morning to New York’s JFK just in time for substantial thunderstorms. After circling JFK for 90 minutes, we landed only to spend 2 hours in a taxi into Manhattan.

All to attend BackStage’s “ActorFest” on Saturday, the 13th.

In my “Actorpreneur” workshop yesterday in Avery Hall at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln I used the analogy of steps on a ladder is parallel to an actors career.

A recent
article in the May 7th Daily Variety, “Soap operas: Actors’ training ground” by Paula Hendrickson articulates the subject.

Paula write, “soap operas double as boot camp for actors. Any notion of
a stigma is a thing of the past, and savvy talent scouts already scour soaps
for future stars.”
She continues, “Already bridging daytime and primetime are Caitlin Van Zandt,
doing double duty as Ashlee on “Guiding Light” and Allegra Sacramoni, Johnny
Sack’s daughter, on “The Sopranos” (though she is no relation to “Sopranos” actors
Steve or Maureen Van Zandt) and “Dancing With the Stars” co-champ Kelly Monaco
of “General
Hospital,” who nabbed a role on the U.S. adaptation of Brit series “Footballers
Wives.”

Read the entire article here.

Been way to long that I have not posted. Hope that it will be on a frequent basis now. Extraordinary actors and places that I have been seeing and meeting all over the world. Further posts I will share some interesting people and actorpreneur workshops that I have lead.

Arrived Wednesday night in Chicago, and had a wonderful dinner on Rush Street
at Carmines with Chicago’s respected casting director, David O’Connor.

David has been casting in Chicago for the past 17 years and runs his casting
office as a producer. Without question, the most successful casting director
between NY and Los Angeles. With so little TV and film production in Chicago,
O’Connor Casting is busy every day casting several commercials every day! Additionally
with his alliances with casting offices in NY and LA, he has been using video
conferencing to speed the casting process.

With additional staff that has just joined him, watch as he starts casting
network and film studio work for the wonderful talented actors in Chicago.